After Tenderloin Apartment Fire, Rent-Controlled Tenants Fear They’re Being Pushed Out

For more than 20 years, Hugh Leeman made his home in a studio at 50 Golden Gate Ave. He said many of his neighbors in the rent-controlled building had lived there long before he did.

But in the predawn hours of Dec. 12, a major blaze erupted on the top floor of the six-story Beaux Arts-style building in the Tenderloin, rendering it unlivable for Leeman and about 130 others who were displaced.

Many of the tenants in the 60-unit building aren’t sure where they’ll live in the coming months, as they face deadlines to apply for city assistance and a possible end to short-term paid hotel stays. Many say they haven’t received sufficient support from the property management company, Mosser Companies, or city leaders.

“It’s been incredibly difficult,” Leeman said after a community meeting on Tuesday with the area’s supervisor and city housing officials. “You’ve got multi-generation families that have lived here for 20, 30, 40 plus years. They can’t afford to go onto the open market.”

In the weeks since the fire, Leeman has been able to move into a new apartment, costing him nearly $500 more a month than his rent-controlled $1,172 rate. Still, he considers himself among the fortunate ones to be able to get settled in that time.

‘Coercive at best’

At the time of the fire, those who had lived for decades at 50 Golden Gate would have been paying a fraction of market rate because of the city rent ordinance’s cap on annual increases.

Because Mosser could stand to make significantly more money by renting the units at market rate, Leeman said he and others are concerned that the company isn’t incentivized to help the current tenants stay in their units after the fire.

“The best thing in their financial interest is to have these people displaced,” he said.

So far, he worries his suspicion is correct. In the days directly following the fire, Leeman said Mosser offered to return renters’ security deposits, though the move would end their leases — and therefore their rent-controlled rates.

Residents said they also received an offer from the company to rehouse them in another building while theirs was being renovated, and then return to 50 Golden Gate, but the contract included a provision that would release Mosser from any liability that could arise related to the fire in the future.

“This, on the surface, is very coercive at best,” Leeman said.

Mosser did not respond to requests for comment from KQED, but tenants said the company had agreed to pay December’s rent and provide security at the building after reports of possible theft.

Julie Tran, who lived in the building for 17 years, said she received the rehousing offer on a Friday and responded the following Monday with a list of at least six of Mosser’s other buildings in which she would be interested in living, but she struggled to get in touch with the company.

“I emailed every day for three days, I left a voicemail every night for three days,” she said.

When she did hear back, she was told only that there was no vacancy at another of Mosser’s buildings that she hadn’t included on that list. “‘Did you read my email?’” she said. “And ‘Why are you responding to me with this lack of vacancy at a building I didn’t ask to be relocated to?’”

Tran said she’s decided not to pursue a new placement in another Mosser building, but she has heard from other residents who have said they’ve been shown single-room occupancy units without kitchens to replace their studios, even as units with kitchens appear as open on the property manager’s site.

“Why is that not being shown to displaced tenants?” Tran asked.

Immediate uncertainty

While residents have tried to get back on their feet, many have been sheltered in two hotels: Disabled and elderly residents were sent to a Motel 6 in Union Square directly after the fire, while others were placed in a Mosser Hotel in the South of Market neighborhood.

Tran said two weeks later, on Christmas Day, she and other residents were almost evicted from the hotels before the city’s Human Services Agency stepped in to extend their stays.

For some, though, that extension could come to an end Friday.

Gardenia Zuniga, who previously lived in the building and has been supporting current residents since the fire, said Supervisor Bilal Mahmood’s office was working to secure extended hotel stays for tenants in 15 units who have recently been approved for the city’s short-term housing subsidy. She said four others’ applications were not approved, and others had elected not to participate.

Those who remain in hotels while they look for longer-term housing are expected to be moved to different spots near Ocean Beach and in South San Francisco while their current hotels are booked due to the upcoming JP Morgan healthcare conference, Zuniga told KQED.

Some tenants on Tuesday expressed concerns that they didn’t qualify for relief based on their income and assets, while others said documentation they needed to complete the applications — like driver’s licenses, passports and other identification — is still inaccessible in their apartments.

Mahmood said that the city was permitting digital documentation to ease that concern and had extended the deadline to apply for relief multiple times. Representatives from the Human Services Agency were present at the meeting on Tuesday to help residents complete individual applications.

Katia Padilla, the chief operating officer of the Latino Task Force, said the building’s monolingual Spanish speakers have also struggled to get sufficient translation services.

She said she’s had to help translate for some, though Mahmood said that the Human Services Agency provided translators during the community meeting and to help with individual applications on Tuesday.

Residents on Tuesday also expressed concerns about security at the building. During the meeting, some said that they believe property they left behind has been removed from their apartments or perhaps stolen. Leeman said people saw via Find My iPhone that their devices had been taken out of the building and accessed off-site, and photos of the building’s roof show that it has been uncovered.

Residents have been unable to retrieve their property because authorities have deemed the building unsafe to enter.

Mahmood said his office was helping residents who are concerned about their property to file police reports, and that it is expediting repair permits needed to allow building access, including to fix a broken elevator at risk of collapsing. He expected tenants would be able to get into the building next week.

“Our focus has been security and making sure the residents get access [as soon] as possible,” he said. “The next step is making sure they’re going to start scheduling appointments for people to come into the building and get access to the resources.”

Next steps

Tran is among the residents who have been approved for assistance through the city’s short-term subsidy program, which will pay the difference between her $1,275 monthly rent at 50 Golden Gate and a new unit that costs up to $2,845 a month, depending on whether she stays in the city or moves elsewhere in the Bay Area.

That subsidy will be in effect for two years, she said, with a possible two-year extension. She’s also applied for the Displaced Tenant Housing Preference program through the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, which gives preference in the city’s affordable housing lottery system to renters forced out of their homes by fire, no-fault eviction and other reasons out of their control. But she said she’s been told that the process could take longer and isn’t a guarantee.

In the meantime, finding a place could prove difficult. Tran said she routinely spent 80% of her income on the studio apartment, and the subsidy goes only toward her base rent, not utilities.

“If I go anywhere that includes [additional] utilities, I have no disposable income left,” she said. “Of all the options I’ve looked at, I’m really only looking at one property at this point.”